Microlearning is a term used in digital learning that has garnered a lot of interest; all types of companies have implemented it as part of their learning programs. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t always be more to learn about this short, catching learning trend.

By now, you’ve probably seen BuzzFeed’s Tasty videos cropping up on your Facebook news feed: Short, appealing cooking videos that show you how to make mouthwatering foods in about 30 seconds or less. With over 55 million Facebook fans, it’s almost impossible to check your profile without triggering a craving for nachos.

Is your organization seeing top talent consistently drop off or leave? Is your company struggling to retain millennial employees? Are you wondering why your learning and development efforts to build leadership skills internally seems to be missing the mark?

Finding ways to increase productivity is a goal of every business in existence. If your employees seem a little sluggish, it’s not your imagination nor your impatience. According to a 2014 Salary.com survey, a whopping 89 percent of workers admitted to wasting time during the course of their workday, with 62 percent copping to at least 30 minutes of lost time. When broken down by age groups, it’s millennials–employees aged 18 to 32–who waste the most time; between 91 percent and 95 percent report boondoggling at work.

It’s no secret that the eLearning Mind team loves microlearning. And why not? Quick, fun, pithy, and highly effective, small bites of information often absorb more easily than long, drawn-out lessons. But just because learning is broken down into mini lessons doesn’t automatically make it good. It’s kind of like seeing a movie: A foreign short without subtitles drags on, while a two-hour, action-pack romp seems to fly by in the theater.

In just a few years, Dollar Shave Club (a mail-order subscription service for razors) went from being a basement startup to being worth $615 million. The brand boasts 2.6 million followers on Facebook, and its original low-brow viral video explaining the service has enjoyed over 22 million views.

The secret to Dollar Shave Club’s success? It’s the support that the brand gets from millennials, because it’s messaging is short and engaging. In fact, the company’s dubious slogan, “Our blades are f**king great” was a direct hit for men ages 18 to 35: exactly what Dollar Shave Club wanted. By marketing directly to millennials, DSC has effectively steamrolled the men’s shaving industry–and their competition.

By now, you’ve probably heard about language-learning wunderkind, Duolingo. It’s a relatively small, free app that promises to teach users foreign languages, from French to Portuguese; 16 languages in all. With more than 100,000 active users every day, there’s a lot to be learned from the success of what is essentially a bite-sized learning game. How is Duolingo keeping users glued to their lessons? And how can you translate that success into your own microlearning efforts?

As it turns out, Duolingo is doing almost everything right, so it’s worth a deeper look.

P.S. If you want to learn more about microlearning, grab a copy of our free eBook here.

Millennials seem to be the talk of the town, and they should be as they are quickly taking over the majority of today’s workforce. Companies worldwide are looking for new ways to connect with, engage, and train these up-and-coming, tech forward leaders, and it can get a bit foggy with all of the different training delivery methods out there. We chose the top two delivery methods we get asked about most often to discuss in this article: Microlearning and Gamification.

If you want an in-depth look at both of these delivery methods we created aMicrolearning eBook here, and aGamification eBook here.

At eLearning Mind, we believe in better ideas created around even better solutions. It’s part of our culture. Through the years, we’ve morphed from a small eLearning development team into a full-service creative eLearning agency . Today, we’re a 30+ team of intellectually creative individuals who are eager to solve your learning and development challenges. We’re ready to put our minds to work for you.

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